Leave at 10 pm, arrive at 8 am in Austria, connecting train to a village in the middle of the Alps, get some last minute supplies, start hiking at 10 am, arrive at the mountain hut at 5 pm. Not really feasible with air travel without spending a night in the valley where you don't actually want to be as 2 or 3 pm is too late to start the hike. Admittedly that is a very specific example.

For city travel, I've had good experiences with hotels that let me check in early (before noon). I've never had a hotel that wouldn't let me stash my luggage before check-in.